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Sunday, January 20, 2013

Last week there was no time for dollhouse miniatures as I was given a challenge from my boyfriend. Last year we purchased yet another mini. It put our total count of minis to 3 (though I have suspicions that there may be another one in the shed in bits (as my boyfriend keeps bringing 'parts' home. he he he :)

My challenge was to clean as much of the old interior as I could and replace parts that were needed. I made a couple of interior panels including the doors. (What does this have to do with miniatures you might ask?) Well, many of the skills I have learnt in making minis were used. For example to make the templates for the dash I made paper templates just like you would for wallpapering a dollhouse.

So why go to the effort? In Australia minis are becoming quite rare and so are their parts, so when all else fails you make or mend. The final result I'm pretty happy about....a few things I want to work on but nothing major. I think Kryton is quite happy with his new interior. Yes thats right....I named my mini. Kryton is a racing mini that we hope to race in the next few months. He is sporting his new numbers.

As Kryton was looking so good we took him down the coast to a mini show and shine. Here he is with all his friends. (Don't they all look good together)

On a mini note. I received today the first of a few mini giveaways I won recently. This came all the way from Finland. I won one of the many Minitarnat's Giveaways. Tuija sent me several beautiful gifts including her hand made basket. Included was a pack of ribbons and other items to make miniatures with. I already have a few ideas up my sleeve for them. Thankyou for your beautiful gift Tuija.

Friday, January 11, 2013

Over the last week I have been working on my little kit house. I'm still a little unsure what the theme of the house will be but I found a little tube of blue sample paint and I knew straight away that it must be blue. I was really surprised to find that the itty bitty sample I brought actually went so far and it was super cheap ($3.50AUD)

I started by painting everything with undercoat just like a real house and I'm glad that I did as the board soaked up the paint very quickly. The house required 3 coats to get a nice finish.

As I'm unable to get to my favourite miniature shop to get wallpaper I thought I'd try some scrapbook paper. It went on well but I did make some paper templates before I cut the real thing. It wasn't quite long enough so there is a join (hopefully not too noticeable?)

Inside I need to put architrave around the window and door to finish it.

The roof....well...its another story. The kit came with a very plain mdf panel. I'm hoping to use this but will add shingles. So its off to ebay for me to see if I can find some.

I thought I'd share with you my new gadget. It's a Midwest Products 'Easy Cutter'. When I was last at the local miniature shop I discovered these and asked "Do they actually work?" The shop owner swore by them and she was right. They are super easy to use and can cut lots of angles. For the window architrave they cut a perfect 45 degree angle. They work just like scissors. Too easy!

So does anyone in blogland have some suggestions for my little house? What should I turn it in to?

For my blog friends in Australia I hope that the summer bushfire season has been kind to you and that you are all safe and sound. Where I live in NSW we had what the Fire Service calls "Catastrophic Conditions". With one fire only 4 kms away on Tuesday it was a bit scary. Luckily they got it out really quickly!